Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Murder Ballad by Jane Hill

It is pretty easy to detect that The Murder Ballad is written by the same author who wrote Grievous Angel. This book is just as easy to read and build over much the same mould. But I still liked it. Much more than I had expected. The plot is better than in Grievous Angel. Still a little silly, but definitely not as silly as in the former book. It is the same type of main character though: English thirtysomething woman, living an okay but half-bitter life. In this book her name is Maeve, whose boyfriend has died. Maeve has begun going out again though and at a concert she falls in love with the weird American country singer/songwriter Trey. He also falls for her and much to everybody's surprise, after a few months they are married and Maeve has packed her bags and has moved to USA, where she finds herself in a house far away in a little town in the Appalachian Mountains. It soon turns out that there are things which are not what they look like. The house the newly weds are going to live in is old and moldy and the spirit of Trey's mean grandfather looms over the house. Maeve also finds out that she is not the only woman in Trey's life and that there are so many layers in their relationship that she is not even aware of. Not to speak of all the layers her husband seems to have. Maeve has a tough time getting to know the people of the town and her husband's past. The Murder Ballad was a little silly and predictable but I actually really liked it.

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